We're absolutely thrilled to announce that Suzanne O'Sullivan has won the Wellcome Book Prize with her debut book, It's All In Your Head which describes her journey through the world of psychosomatic illness.

All in Your Head focuses on debilitating illnesses that are medically unexplained. The prize organisers said: “We all exhibit physical responses to emotion – from blushing and laughter, to palpitations and stomach- ache – yet sometimes these expressions can be much more debilitating, causing seizures, paralysis, and even blindness, and the stigmatization associated with such a diagnosis is profound… Merging autobiography with absorbing case histories taken from her clinical experience, O’Sullivan’s work spotlights an area of increased attention in medical science – the boundaries between what afflicts the body and the mind and how deeply related the one is to the other.”

The winner was announced by acclaimed author, journalist and broadcaster Joan Bakewell DBE, at a ceremony held in Wellcome Collection's Reading Room.

Bakewell said of the winner: “It is a truly impressive book, chosen for its many virtues. Suzanne O’Sullivan is a consultant neurologist and her first-hand accounts of diagnosing her patients offer new insights into the relationship between the body and the mind. The fact that society divides them into two medical disciplines - the physical and the mental - is being increasingly challenged. O’Sullivan’s book brings to light important examples of how the two inter-relate.”

After the winner was announced, O'Sullivan told The Bookseller: "I'm thrilled and a bit disoriented. It was great once [the prize ceremony] started but it was the longest 10 minutes of my life waiting for it to start. It was lovely, it's such a great experience. It's very surreal, I don't think it's completely hit home yet."

She added: "The fact I've won this is such, in my mind, a mark of respect for the patients I'm looking after. I hope it gives some recognition to the seriousness of the disorder, the need for us to develop better services for it. I'm personally thrilled to have this but the whole point of the book is to bring awareness to sorts of patients I look after. I really think this is going to make a big difference."

Kirsty McLachlan at DGA added, "I'm so proud of Suzanne, hers is the very kind of a book which starts conversations and challenges how we look at ourselves and the world around us. Suzanne is a truly deserving winner."

The £30,000 prize celebrates the best new books, published from 1st January 2015 to 31 December 2015, that engage with some aspect of medicine, health or illness, showcasing the breadth and depth of our encounters with medicine through exceptional works of fiction and non-fiction.